Montréal, QC (September 19, 2023) — You might say sound is imprinted in Daniel Fontaine-Bégin’s DNA. From his earliest days tagging along with his father, a radio DJ, to his curent work on Canadian movies, and on Simon Poudrette’s sound team for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and dozens of other television series and documentaries, the Canadian engineer has carved out an extraordinary career path capturing the sounds that help bring film and television programming to life. Although he works mainly out of his home base of Montréal, Fontaine-Bégin’s projects have taken him to the United States, Mexico, France, Chile, parts of the Middle East and Southeast Asia—always with his remote rig in tow, which currently includes a host of Lectrosonics gear including DCR 822 digital compact receivers on his cart, SRC dual-channel slot mount receivers in his bag as well as IFBlue units, SSM micro transmitters and most recently, the DSR4 four channel digital slot receiver.
Fontaine-Bégin has relied on Lectrosonics throughout most of his three-decade career. “Around 2000, I bought my first receivers and transmitters; they were Lectrosonics,” he says. “And that’s the only brand I’ve used for the past 23 years.”
Recently, Fontaine-Bégin has been working on two of the hottest shows in Canada: Aller Simple (season 2), a murder-intrigue series; and Indéfendable, a wildly popular legal drama. “With Indéfendable, people talk a lot,” Fontaine-Bégin explains. “The scenes are more static; it’s just straightforward to dialogue. But on this other show, it’s a little more like, “tonight we’re shooting from 3 p.m. until 3 a.m., and there’s going to be a car accident, with dialogue so that can get a little more complex.”
In the end, he explains, the work—and the technology requirements—are the same. “Your gear needs to adapt to faster situations and quicker setup. You need gear that you can hide well. That’s why my preferred transmitter is the SSM from Lectrosonics, because they’re so compact, very easy to hide in wardrobe.”
Thanks to his decades-long relationship with Lectrosonics, Fontaine-Bégin was able to be one of the first to use the new DSR4 four-channel digital receiver. “Ever since I started doing this work, I’ve always tried to have the smallest setup possible,” he says. “With the new DSR4, I have so many receivers crammed in a little space, it’s just fantastic.”
As someone who has progressed from using the Lectrosonics SR to the SRB to the SRC to the DSR4 over the years, Fontaine-Bégin has had a front-row seat to a continual evolution in next-generations quality and performance. With wireless technology, RF performance and fidelity are table stakes; for Fontaine-Bégin, the improvements he seeks are more about performance in the context of an increasingly complex telecommunications environment. “It might feel like things don’t change that much, but in reality, it’s way better, because the environment has become so busy and disruptive over the years,” he says. “It’s great for me that I can use this gear without worrying about what’s happening in town or things like that. I’ve been to New York to do ENG work, and I never had a problem when I was there, either.”
Fontaine-Bégin appreciates the ease of navigating the Lectro DSR4. “Turn it on, and they’re just ready to go. It’s pretty cool for me because you can’t really beta-test this technology until you’re on an actual shoot that matters.”
His testing experience was so seamless, once the final product was available, he immediately ordered two. “I needed that compact setup on Indéfendable because the court scenes have up to 9 or 10 speaking actors at the same time. I needed things to be compact. So, in a leap of faith, I was just like, “You know what? Let’s go. It’s working.’ I knew I could count on Lectrosonics. Then, after a couple days on set, it was like, “Okay, everything is smooth sailing.”
“Like I said, for the past 23 years now, Lectrosonics has never disappointed me,” Fontaine-Bégin concludes. “These guys, they work hard. If they didn’t do what they do, I couldn’t do what I do.”
About Lectrosonics
Well respected within the film, broadcast, live performance and theatre technical communities since 1971, Lectrosonics wireless microphone systems and audio processing products are used daily in mission-critical applications by audio engineers familiar with the company’s dedication to quality, customer service, and innovation. Lectrosonics received an Academy Scientific and Technical Award for its Digital Hybrid Wireless® technology and is a US manufacturer based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Visit the company online at www.lectrosonics.com.
